On the road to nowhere
Set in the foothills of the Breede River Valley, McGregor is a village where time stood still but life is full. NANDI MAJOLA gets into the rhythm
Voortrekker Street is McGregor’s main road, one of few that is tarred and the only one with streetlights. Just beyond town, Voortrekker dissolves into a dirt track that locals call the ‘Road to Nowhere’, which heads off into the Riviersonderend Mountains. They will tell you McGregor is a destination, not a through-road (in fact, there is only one way into town). They believe the Road to Nowhere is the reason their charming village remains untarnished by commercialisation.
‘McGregor’s biggest export is peacefulness,’ says Edna Fourie, an artist and gallery owner, who sought a new life here almost 20 years ago and has never looked back. ‘The village slows people down. And once you slow down, you find that there’s more to do here than you could possibly manage over a weekend.’ Residents include both millennials, like Mira Weiner, and retirees, like Barbara Jacobs who moved here 15 years ago. ‘Life is full in this little town,’ says Barbara. We’re sitting in her decor and gift shop, How Bazaar, which also boasts a tea garden out back, and I’m eager to try her famous cheesecake. Apart from running the shop, Barbara belongs to the village swimming, bridge and Scottish dancing clubs. She’s also part of the Worst End Theatre Company and the lead singer of Random Act, a local jazz band that performs ‘whenever there’s a need’.
‘A lot goes on behind the scenes,’ confirms Mira, when I meet her at the McGregor Ice Saturday Afternoon Food
Market. This pop-up restaurant is one of many ways in which McGregorites get together. Three people serve meals from different cuisines. Today, the main dishes are spaghetti and meatballs, Moroccan tagine and Asian spring rolls.
‘I sometimes think of McGregor as a very rustic, country version of New York!’ says Mira. ‘We have such an interesting collection of people from all over the world who’ve chosen to move here.’
Some even had careers in showbiz, like Mary Corpe from the UK who was a dancer on Top of the Pops in the 70s. She launched Next Step Dance Academy and First Step Ballet in McGregor as charity efforts.
Mira herself came to McGregor when she was seven. Her mother wanted her to live somewhere she could ride a bike and swim in a dam. It’s also where she’s honed her entrepreneurial skills, becoming an ambassador for the village that raised her.
Stroll the streets of the sleepy village and you’ll be surprised by what you can find. Voortrekker has most of the treasures, including How Bazaar, Bemind Wyne (‘beloved wines’ in Afrikaans) and La Pizza Pazza (‘the crazy pizza’).
The pizzeria’s owner, Axel Daniel, hails from Cologne and saw this place as the perfect backdrop for an eatery, albeit one that exudes the eclectic, urban feel of a restaurant in Cape Town.
At Billy Kennedy’s Temenos Retreat, people come to meditate or do yoga, but simply walking through its lush gardens is therapeutic in itself, what with the duck ponds, art gallery, chapel, two libraries, labyrinth, peacocks and other birdlife.
The outer edges of the village also have much to offer, including a charming donkey sanctuary, a nature reserve, an olive estate and boutique wine cellar and distillery.
McGregor is a festive place. I’d missed the annual musical production, The Wizard of Oz, which had a cast of moms, estate agents and school kids. But Poetry in McGregor, a festival created by Billy, is coming up at the end of August. Each year, people gather for three days in venues
across the village to enjoy wine and the spoken word from well-known and up-and-coming poets. In September, there’s a three-day mountain-bike race called the Ride2Nowhere, and this year will see the inaugural Run2Nowhere, a two-day trail run in the surrounding countryside. The annual Hands-on-Harvest (February) and McGregor Food & Wine (September) also make this a mecca for foodies and wine lovers.
But McGregor is also the kind of place where you can do absolutely nothing: just chill, braai, play board games, read books and drink wine. At Tigh-na-Breagha (‘House of Beauty’ in Gaelic) I feel at ease, knowing I’ve plenty of time to relax. The house is spacious, with a garden that requires at least half an hour to explore. I take it all in and allow my noise-polluted ears to acclimatise to the silence.
McGregor doesn’t seek anything beyond itself. The residents have everything they need here. As Edna put it, ‘It’s not the people that make McGregor. McGregor has its own character. When people come here, they slot into that character.’ And for a few precious days, I took the time to get into character too.